Measuring vehicle sideslip angle with a laser-enhanced camera sensor

Accurate knowledge of vehicle velocity and sideslip angle – defined as the angle between the vehicle’s velocity vector and the vehicle longitudinal axis – is critical for vehicle stability control systems and dynamic modeling. Although several estimation methods have been developed, their performance under diverse and unconstrained driving conditions remains limited. This work presents a camera-and-laser-based approach for the direct measurement of longitudinal and lateral velocity, hence providing the sideslip angle, leveraging computer vision techniques. A real-time perception framework is implemented on a 1:5 scaled radio-controlled vehicle and on a full-scale passenger vehicle, with visual data processed and transmitted via the vehicle’s Controller Area Network (CAN). The experimental validation demonstrates the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed system – which is also insensible to vehicle roll and pitch motions – with performance benchmarked against ground-truth data obtained from a Kistler S-Motion sensor.